This invention relates to an information recording medium for recording motion-picture voice information. More particularly, this invention relates to a recording medium having a data management structure for recording information:that is used to concisely confirm an outline of recorded motion-picture voice information and an additional content, and relates also to an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing apparatus and an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing method, having means for outputting this information on the basis of the data management structure and means for recording or reproducing the motion-picture voice information and the management information.
A known motion-picture voice recording/reproducing apparatus includes means for recording a still picture, that represents the outline of recorded original image data added to original image data, and for displaying the still picture, and this apparatus raises an alarm display when the still picture is not prepared. Such an apparatus is described, for example, in JP-A-10-233988.
In order to determine the presence/absence of the still picture, the prior art technology described above needs to read out the original image and the data file of the still picture added to the original image and to determine its presence/absence. When the still pictures for a plurality of original images are displayed in this case, for example, all the corresponding files must be read out for the determination and the processing time necessary for this determination is likely to get elongated. As to the determination of the presence/absence of character information representing the additional content, too, the original images and the data files of the character information added to the original image must be read out for the determination of the presence/absence of the character information. If the character information for a plurality of original images is displayed in this case, for example, all the corresponding files must be read out for the determination and the processing time for the determination is likely to get elongated similarly.
When the still picture is not added, a screen representing that the still picture is not prepared is displayed. However, it is not possible for a user to know which images are recorded after all. In other words, the improvement in the operation factor of retrieving the recorded original images has not yet been sufficient.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording medium that has a data management structure capable of eliminating the problems described above and determining efficiently whether or not a still picture representing the outline of an original image or character information representing additional contents are added, and to provide an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing apparatus that generates still pictures from the original image even when the still pictures are not added, outputs the still pictures and improves the operation factor of retrieving the original images that are recorded.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information recording medium having motion-picture and voice signals recorded thereto after an encoding compression processing, wherein recording position information of the compression motion-picture voice data corresponding to an outline image representing the motion-picture and the voice signals is recorded, the recording position information functions also as non-set information representing that the outline image is not set by a user or by a system, and the recording position information is readably arranged in such a fashion as to correspond to reproduction of the motion-picture and the voice signals in each predetermined unit. The non-set information representing that the outline image is not set is recorded to the recording position information by a value that cannot be used as the recording position information of the compressed motion-picture voice data.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing apparatus which comprises means for generating an outline image by looking up recording position information of compressed motion-picture voice data corresponding to the outline image that represents the outline of the motion-picture and the voice signals, and control means for determining whether or not the recording position information is a value that cannot be used as the recording position information, and causing the outline image generation means to generate the outline image by regarding the information of the recording leading position of a predetermined unit of the compressed motion-picture: voice data, as the recording position information of the compressed motion-picture voice data corresponding to the outline image, when the recording position information is determined as the value that cannot be used as the recording position information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing method which comprises the steps of setting a value, that cannot be used as recording position information, as the recording position information of the compressed motion-picture voice data corresponding to the outline image representing the outline of the motion-picture and the voice signals, when a user does not designate the outline image at the time of recording, determining, at the time of reproduction, whether or not the recording position information of the compressed motion-picture voice data corresponding to the outline image is a value that cannot be used as the recording position information, and reading out the compressed motion-picture voice data at the recording leading position of a predetermined unit of the compressed motion-picture voice data, and generating the outline image when the recording position information is the value that cannot be used as the recording position information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information recording medium having motion-picture and voice signals recorded thereto after an encoding compression processing, wherein the recording position information of character information representing an additional content relating to the motion-picture and to the voice signals is recorded thereto, the character information recording position information functions also as non-set information representing that the character information is not set by a user or by a system, and the character information recording position information is arranged readably in such a fashion as to correspond to reproduction of the motion-picture and the voice signals in each predetermined unit. The non-set information of the character information recording position information may be recorded by a value that cannot be used as the character information recording position information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is further provided an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing apparatus which comprises character information generation means for reading out character information by looking up character information recording position information as recording position information of the character information representing an additional content relating to motion-picture and voice signals, and generating the character information, and control means for determining whether or not the character information recording position information is a value that cannot be used as the recording position information, and executing control in such a fashion as not to look for nor read the character information when the character information recording position information is the value that cannot be used as the recording position information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an motion-picture voice recording/reproducing method which comprises the steps of setting a value, that cannot be used as character information position information as recording position information of character information representing an additional content relating to the motion-picture and the voice signals when a user does not designate the character information at the time of recording, determining, at the time of reproduction, whether or not the character information recording position information is the value that cannot be used as the character information recording position information, and executing reproduction control in such a fashion as not to look for nor read the character information when the character information recording position information is the value that cannot be used as the character information recording position information.